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Will Appearing In Sony's Marvel Movies Keep Characters From MCU?

If a Marvel character shows up in Sony's Marvel movie, can they still appear in the MCU? Despite producer Amy Pascal's insistence that the upcoming Venom is not set in the same universe as the proper MCU, rumors continue to persist that Tom Holland might make an appearance in Ruben Fleischer's anti-hero thriller. For all intents and purposes, as of this writing, there is no official connection between Venom and the MCU just yet, and there may never be, regardless of the best wishes of a hyped-up fandom.

As excited as audiences may be for a big-budget, R-rated, no-holds-barred Venom film, it may come at a great cost to the MCU. If Venom (along with the in-development Silver & Black and Morbius) is not set in the MCU, then what does that mean for the prospect of its characters ever appearing in a "real" Marvel movie? For that matter, the story of the upcoming animated Spider-Man film apparently precludes the possibility of a full-on live-action Spider-Verse movie starring Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield. Not that such a film was ever actually in development, but now it would just seem redundant.

By all accounts, the existence of films like Venom, Into the Spider-Verse, and Silver & Black was the price Marvel Studios had to pay in order to reboot Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Considering the excellent critical and financial reception of Spider-Man Homecoming, as well as the character's scene-stealing appearance in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, it seems it was a price worth paying. But what if Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel Studios want to introduce Venom to a Spider-Man sequel?

Can Audiences Differentiate Sony From the MCU?

If Venom is a box office success, Sony has plans to launch a franchise around the character. It's also likely that they're waiting to see how the film performs before moving forward with their Morbius and Silver & Black films, which are based on significantly lesser-known characters than the iconic and provocative black Symbiote.

The biggest fear regarding Sony's Marvel Universe is, since it's not part of the MCU, there could be multiple versions of characters appearing in films across multiple universes. If the MCU introduces Symbiotes, they'll likely wish to have total control over the casting of figures like Eddie Brock and Cletus Kasady. The same holds true for Silver & Black and Morbius, provided those films are ever made... Or they could make Sony characters off-limits in the MCU to avoid any potential confusion.

At this stage in the game, there is evidence to suggest that Sony and Marvel don't want to include multiple versions of key Marvel figures across the MCU and Sony's universe. In the early stages of development on BlackPanther, Ryan Coogler was aiming to include Kraven the Hunter as a villain in the film. Kraven, a "great white hunter" archetype, is a perfect fit for the world of Wakanda, but Coogler admitted that certain legal issues prevented him from utilizing the villain. Of course, Kraven is mostly known for being a Spider-Man villain, and there are rumors of a Kraven the Hunter movie secretly in development at Sony. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to connect the dots and suggest that Kraven was prohibited from appearing in Black Panther because Sony had their own plans for the character.

Page 2 of 3: Marvel Character Have Already Appeared in Multiple Universes